Put your faith in spiritual masters, while studying with teachers

 

Put your faith in spiritual masters, while studying with teachers

I understand that faith towards one's/your teacher because I was once there myself. In my case blind faith which is the wrong kind of faith shattered because the practice just didn't give the sought results.

I've seen so many people turn solely to their living physical teachers and turn away from nonphysical masters such as Jesus, Babaji or Padmasambhava, even when they never needed to choose either or. Well, in some cases like yours your religion prohibits you from turning to other masters but even if it didn't, people still make that choice. It's been said over and over by past masters that their help and blessings (that are immensely powerful) are available to anyone at anytime and yet people keep missing that precious opportunity and stick to their partially awakened teachers and lineage holders instead with very limited results. It is one kind of dharmic stoopidity. What is mindboggling to me how most people get stuck and agreeably fixated with their less than enlightened teachers like little babies to their mothers without the slightest ability of common sensical thinking. Even committed practitioners get attached to teachers of this world just because they think it is automatically a better option but that is completely wrong. 

There are all the samsaric realms inhabited by countless sentient beings. The only ones who are free from samsaric mind and samsaric rebirths are the mahasiddhas, the genuine gurus and attained master yoginis and yogis. So, you have all categories of samsaric beings who are bound by their karma and their self-centered delusions and then you have mahasiddhas who are free and fly in and out the realms like majestic eagles. To yogis, to people who study and validate dharma through their own experience rather than dogma, all of this is play.

The mistake many practitioners make that it would be better to put one's faith on the guy or gal who is little or partially awakened rather than to turn to masters who've already left this plane and no longer inhabit a physical body. It's such a rookie mistake because what people are left with is a teacher who is categorically a samsaric being and not a mahasiddha with perfect knowledge and pure energy. Your teacher might be just a little bit farther in your practice than yourself. Such a teacher should be very careful about making rules to her/his students because such limiting actions have serious consequences, plus keeps the progress of the students bound. I am saying that you can have both.

You have a very good connection with Jesus. Cherish it! Make him your compass and you will never regret it.

-Baba, 22 Feb 23

How Liberation Works?

 

How Liberation Works?

I remember when I first saw Tenzin Palmo's video where she says that even buddha couldn't help people get awakened. It felt like fresh air... that someone would say exactly how it is and not sugarcoat it or talk nonsense.

It is extremely sad that dharma - practices of yoga - is made into a dogmatic religion. I can never accept that but I understand why this happens. Systematically the humanity keeps missing the point which ironically is also a testimony to the ineffectiveness of the practices people are given. So you have all these religious people upholding what they think is the teaching of liberation that actually binds and blinds them, and makes them mean! The next thing to do culturally, now that some sort of ethical foundation has been set by the old religions, is to remove the possibility of dogmatic fixation, so that pragma stops being made into dogma. Then yoga - the science of enlightenment - can truly thrive.

What!? To remove *possibility* of dogmatic fixation!? You got to be joking!!

No, I am not joking!

The problem of bad yoga, or practices that keep the mind in the delusional loop, is that they don't break out from the field of self-delusion. Having glimpses and few insights into selfless nature of mind is good for starters but this is really just an appetizer. In Pemako we have practices and a method that takes us way farther than just few awakenings and in fact all the way to full enlightenment (skt. anuttara samyak sambodhi). We have 5 people in the sangha at present who are "fully enlightened". Five people out of 80, and the number keeps rising higher.

What we have in our sangha is nothing short of a revolution on individual and communal levels. On individual level, this is revolution from the tyranny of the self-based mind leading to perfect liberation. It is freedom from all kinds of fixations, including freedom of religious fixation and dogmatism. At present, because there are 5 people in our community who are completely and permanently out of the loop of self-delusion, the rest of the sangha is positively affected by this, and the number of fully enlightened individuals - mahasiddhas - keeps increasing. Soon there will be 10, then 15 and so on.

The reason why this is the case in Pemako sangha is because we practice the dharma in a pragmatic, not dogmatic, way. We practice the dharma in an open minded and innovative manner just like secular sciences and arts are practiced. And it works! Due to the fact that our practitioners keep breaking out from the shackles of the samsaric mind on *daily* basis, because of our unique and unorthodox set of practices, is the reason why dogmatic fixation, narrow minded thinking, cult behaviour and whatnot that is raging in all religions, dies altogether in this community. Our unsual practices such as dynamic concentration, actually tames our inner demons so they don't germinate and grow into external actions in the world that would break and raise hell in our community. It is indeed exceptional to have a harmonious and peaceful community in this world, and it all boils down to the method that we practice and the fruits that it bears.

When I was a small boy I observed people and couldn't but think how screwed up they were. They were distorting everything and making themselves and others miserable that can all be summed up in two concepts: self-belief and self-delusion. These early observations about the state of people's minds and its effects on communal and societal levels were motivators when I started "the path of enlightenment". To me, practice was always about making the world a better place, the kind of place it would already be if people stopped screwing things up in between their ears!

When I look at how poor is the state of affairs in the world, I cannot but say that the avalanche already seems to be going downhill, rushing towards the bottom of the valley, causing immense destruction on its way. It has come to the point when we are loosing the planet itself and yet most people keep doing the same things as they always did, as if they were hypnotized. Seeing this happen I simply can't sit and do nothing about it.

Those who know me well know how anxious I've been about getting proper functional dharma practices out there, and I'm sure my anxiousness has contributed to theirs but this is the reason why. In Pemako we have perfect medicine, without any harmful side-effects whatsoever, and I am happy to see that it is getting out there but at the same time I fear if the medicine comes too late. The only way to stop that devastating avalanche is to replace the culture built on self-interest with self-liberation that automatically thinks about the benefit of *all of us together*, the wellfare of the planet and life on it included.

These are utopistic words but this is the only way for the world community to attain harmony and peace. Once again, I am not talking about creating a new religion that everyone should join. I am not talking about beliefs to accept and forms to follow. I am talking about internal peace and happiness.

I am talking about realising the fact that everyone in this world is perfect and pure, and free. You, me and everyone you ever met has the same potential for love and freedom as Jesus Christ and all the masters of yoga have. Within us all, there is perfect happiness that when recognised and embodied makes our minds sober which in turn puts an end to self-based confusion and selfish actions and their outcomes. No matter what nonsense religions have fed us, innately we have perfect potential to be really authentic human beings whose hearts are limitless and kindness is real!

But we need practices, we need exercise to realise that. We need a way to uncover, to reveal what at present is kept hidden by our belief in self-based existence. We need tools to break out and these tools I have given for anyone to use.

-Kim, 25.10.2021

No Reifications of a Metaphysical God by John Tan

No Reifications of a Metaphysical God

by John Tan, Buddhist philosopher and practitioner.

See Awakening to Reality-blog.

”What is presence now? Everything... Taste saliva, smell, think, what is that? Snap of a finger, sing. All ordinary activity, zero effort therefore nothing attained. Yet is full accomplishment. In esoteric terms, eat God, taste God, see God, hear God...lol. That is the first thing I told Mr. Jax few years back when he first messaged me If a mirror is there, this is not possible. If clarity isn't empty, this isn't possible. Not even slightest effort is needed. Do you feel it? Grabbing of my legs as if I am grabbing presence! Do you have this experience already? When there is no mirror, then entire existence is just lights-sounds-sensations as single presence. Presence is grabbing presence. The movement to grab legs is Presence.. the sensation of grabbing legs is Presence.. For me even typing or blinking my eyes. For fear that it is misunderstood, don't talk about it. Right understanding is no presence, for every single sense of knowingness is different. Otherwise Mr. Jax will say nonsense... lol. When there is a mirror, this is not possible. Think I wrote to Longchen (Sim Pern Chong) about 10 years ago.”

“After realization… Just eat God, breathe God, smell God and see God… Lastly be fully unestablished and liberate God.”

Soh Wei Yu: "Lest readers misinterpret that John is affirming a substantialist notion of a ‘God’, it should be noted that by the phase of Anatta realization, there is simply no more reifications or conceivings of a metaphysical ‘God’ or ‘Creator’ of any kind, and John was simply using the lingo of Mr. Jax to convey the complete absence of a background substratum of Presence and the total luminosity of Presencing-as-manifestation to Mr. Jax using his ‘esoteric lingo’. Even the word ‘Presence’ is not referring to some static entity here - ‘Presencing’ is perhaps a better term, for as James M. Corrigan wrote, “...Awareness is not something other than the “presencing” (i.e. naturing) of appearances. It is not a thing. It is not part of a thing. It is not an “aspect” of a process… ...it is the process—not some aspect of it”

Solidifying Bodhicitta

Solidifying Bodhicitta

Cultivation of bodhicitta, or the heartmind of enlightenment, happens in stages. In the beginning it might be completely artificial, just saying the prayers without meaning them because one doesn't yet feel it. One doesn't get it in the beginning because one does not have much understanding of reality but it changes with practice, like everything does. Through efforts towards greater clarity and peace of mind within oneself, even doing lip service of prayers of compassion leads to accumulation of experiences which in turn brings about transformation. Then we begin to say those prayers and thinking all sentient beings with some care and concern, with some personal involvement. Through reflection of one's and others' inner state*, our world view begins to change and we actually begin to care for others. It doesn't necessarily mean that we come to like people, because people are not easy to like, but we become concerned where the whole human operation is heading towards. We realize the value of dharma for humans and all sentient beings and understand how deeply screwed we all are. From there arises compassion and it is curious that it does. It does because under all the bullshit and deceit, shines basic goodness, (tib. kuntuzangpo). The truth of our being is positive and life-affirming, not negative and life-denying. So, after some time, we start feeling something, a bit compassionate. Bodhicitta keeps growing like a sapling, getting bigger and bigger year by year.

*See Four Thoughts That Turn The Mind from Open Heart Preliminary Practices-book

Something that I have observed in my students who have opened all their bhumis, who therefore have no need to search for knowing awareness or rigpa, is that for many of them it takes a while after the shifts to display compassion. Even when one has a direct and constant connection to the buddha within, it apparently takes time for the dynamic aspect of it, bodhicitta, to grow on the person. At one point I was actually very worried about this because many students had opened their bhumis but I wasn't seeing any initiative and action for the existential wellfare of others. They just bathed in their own clarity and bliss. I spent sleepless nights over this. I was stressed whether I had created some sort of a perverted path that lead to clear awareness but is not compassionate, for that'd be awful. Without compassion, Open Heart would not be a path to great accomplishment, that is, mahasiddhi or buddhahood. But then, to my great relief, they became more active and started showing their concern. Colour returned on my face! 
 

Avalokiteshvara - Bodhisattva of Compassion. The name literally means "The Lord who hears the cries from below".

When I started practicing I didn't have all the toys and know-how my students have, so my path was largely just relying on bodhicitta and letting that lead me. Nevertheless, it appears that with or without shifts in perception (bhumi openings), bodhicitta takes time to develop. Stabilizing rigpa is one thing, something very meaningful to any sentient being and on top of that, becoming one with bodhicitta is another. It ensures correct direction of one's practice until full enlightenment is attained. What does becoming one with bodhicitta mean?

As sentient beings we are tied to our self-centered views and thoughts. From there we start loosening the knots of me, me, me and begin to think in terms of us all, us all, us all. That can be scary in the beginning. ”What do you mean 'taking the suffering of others into my heart'!? Fuck that! No! I don't want that!” Despite of initial self-based reactions such as panic, we come to see that it works, if we have had enough of confusion. Those who are ready, i.e. have merit, take their practice like ancient masters have, very seriously. This puts us inside a machine of sorts that takes us beyond duration and location. By going through our pain tirelessly like a warrior, we reach the other shore that is beyond and better than all states and achievements. Para sam gate bodhi svaha - gone completely beyond to reach natural perfection.

In this process, we become unified with compassion. Our mind starts thinking in ways that are aligned with the very message of ”may all beings be free” and ”I vow to liberate all sentient beings”. Our mind becomes united with bodhicitta, which means that it becomes the heartmind of enlightenment. We become that and when we do, we embody the fully enlightened potential we all have.

When we take the Bodhisattva Vow, it puts us into this engine that peels off the layers of self-confusion bit by bit. This can be scary and unpleasant at times. When the samsaric pus comes out, it hurts and stinks for a moment but in the long run gets better.

That we can exercise, contemplate, pray, chant, act and meditate on bodhisattvic compassion is the greatest gift given by the buddha within. I highly recommend receiving it. I am not aware of a better way of solving internal and external conflicts, and since the world is burning, this is the time when it is needed the most.

-Kim Katami, 8^th of August 2019

Open Heart Sangha

www.en.openheart.fi

See also Playlist of Bodhicitta workshops at YouTube.

Three Precious Book Gems from Open Heart By Arwen Jayne

Three Precious Book Gems

from Open Heart

By Arwen Jayne

Copied with permission from:

https://diylearning.blogspot.com/2019/05/three-precious-book-gems-from-open.html

I'm a doing person so I don't get around as much to reading as you'd expect from an author. This week a five hour up and five hour back trip, as a passenger, gave me ample time to finish rereading Kim Katami's first book "Awake! Handbook of Awakening" and read his latest "What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice" and "Open Heart Preliminary Practices" (linked below).

So what are they all about?

Waking up means awakening to the fact that we are more than our mentally constructed and heavily labelled selves, bound by skin and bone. We are beyond the limits of time, space and self. You can understand this conceptually or philosophically and there are certainly many on youtube and other places where people do discuss non-dual reality and experiences. The idea, however, has little meaning until it is experienced. Back in 2012 I was frustrated by all the secrecy that surrounded how to get to having experience. Many fobbed it off as something that would take many lifetimes, in the meantime just lead an ethical life and have compassion for others (not even pointing out that compassion for your own situation was important too.

Not willing to take many lifetimes I'd spent much of my life up to that point looking for practical know how. I found hints of it in the gnostic christian teachings, pagan connection to the oneness of nature, quaker teachings of listening within. Toltec shamanism teachings on love and relationship to others. I attended Satyananda yoga and learned to stare at a flame, learning to witness life as an observer. I learned Kriya yoga, pranayama, breath control etc. Tai Chi was a wonder that taught me the dance of movement and stillness. Shivasim hinted at an absolute. Buddhism entranced but seemed buried in layers, limited in its accessibility to the empowered and the ordained. Always cautious of giving my power away to others I stayed away. At least until I found Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Bon teachings relating to dzogchen and dream yoga. Then I found Lama Yeshe's book on the clear light of bliss and authors such as Anam Thubten. But by then I'd had my first awakening. That falling away of self and the realisation of the boundless absolute. Connection to everything and beyond thing. Wanting the happiness of all the parts (people animal and things) sharing my physical existence. Wondering at the craziness of the world that chased after so much 'us and them' stuff, competing, striving, setting goals, only to fade and die leaving all at the so called end. But there was no end. Post that first wakening I chucked a heap of books from my esoteric library as they were a bunch of nonsense.

Fast forward to about three years ago. Youtube, its algorithms knowning my interest in dzogchen and the non-dual, started suggesting I watch videos from Open Heart Yoga. It was exactly what I needed at the time to deepen my practice. One of the problems of awakening is that you form an attachment to the experience you've had. You don't want to lose the insights. Yet the world starts to close in on you again. Work, family illness, world events all try to drag you back into that closed awareness of self as the only reality. For me, my way to stop that happening was to write. To journal my ideas, on this blog or hiding them in novels, hoping that most might enjoy the novels but others would see more.  It is that sharing and connecting, developing a sanga of sorts of like minded souls that gives refuge from the pervasive illusion around us.

So, Kim's books.

Possibly one should start with "Open Heart: Preliminary Practices" to lay some ground work. I never did. I came to preliminary practices rather late in the piece, long after my first awakening experience. All good commensense, which I do practise daily now. At least my own version, coloured by the teachings I have followed over time.

"Awake! Handbook of Awakening" - this is the book I wish I'd had fall in my lap much earlier in life. It would have saved so much time and work. It's all there in two easy steps. First: Scan the body and release the tension. In the space where the tension was find, well the space. Allow such spaces to connect up. Rest in that space. Marinate in it. Kim uses this term marinate quite eloquently throughout his teachings. Like what's the use of saying a mantra if you don't take time to accept its blessing, by marinating in it. The second step - well I want give any  spoiler here - read it. It's free. There are youtubes by Open Heart Fi that will explain the same if you prefer an auditory-visual approach.

The last book goes into something that isn't unique to Open Heart Yoga but rarely explained by other traditions. To be honest I initially dismissed this Bhumi model, or explaination of the degree of opening of the chakras and higher chakras as unnecessary to my path. It seemed a bit hierarchical and at danger of being a grading system for practitioners. I hate grades. But finally reading this book I realised that what it was about was extending the awareness of openness one feels upon awakening. Extending that awareness outward and upward, as well as downward, like ripples in a pond. I gave it ago. I felt it. When I looked again at the photos in the book I had an aha moment. Not crazy selfies afterall. You could really look at the change in the amount of openness in the individual as they grew in the path. I looked back through my old license photos. Greyer in the hair yes but there was no missing the inner peace that shone back at me in my latest. Having enjoyed a number of Shinzen Young's videos I appreciated the tale about him seeing a photo book and knowing what the theme of the book was, awakening in the face of great odds, from simply seeing the faces. On a practical level this can be a useful way for us to look at teachers who claim awakening, not to judge them as good or bad (we all have our worthwhile stories to tell) but as an indicator of where they're at, context perhaps.

The day after I read this book something interesting happened. I was visiting family when I met an energy healer. When she told me she practised reiki and theta healing I didn't dismiss her. I've experienced reiki a time or two but stayed away from it because it was either one extreme or the other, ineffectual or so damn strong it left me jittery for days. She made an interesting offer, to apply some reiki symbols to a ring I wear that has great meaning to me. I had no expectations. After using some water from the tap to loosen the ring off my finger I handed it two her and then ... well! While she was working I felt something strange happening between my heart chakra and my throat chakra, a tingling, a coming to life or something. I looked up later and found that this is the location of something called the thymus chakra or higher heart chakra. The website below has this to say on it "Opening our thymus chakra enhances our willingness to forgive and to show compassion." and that "Reiki can be applied to the client’s entire energetic network or concentrated on selected chakras in spot treatments." All this seemed entirely synchronous. The day before I was exploring the higher chakras and then bam! this. So I am encompassing this chakra in my bhumi practise.



Links:

• Awake! Handbook of Awakening
  http://www.en.openheart.fi/114
  
• What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice http://www.en.openheart.fi/35532
  
• Open Heart Preliminary Practices
  

https://www.en.openheart.fi/37647

Also see:

• Thymus: The Seat of the Human Soul https://upliftconnect.com/thymus-seat-human-soul/
  

Just As It Is – All Beings Are Free

Just As It Is – All Beings Are Free

Few days ago, compassionate motivation of enlightenment (skt. bodhicitta, j. bodaishin/菩提心), from the relative perspective, was discussed at Facebook. Mahayana and vajrayana approaches of buddhism are big on bodhicitta, where practitioners remind themselves of the suffering and confusion of all sentient beings, while mentally praying and physically acting for the liberation of all beings. This is what bodhisattvas, those aiming at full liberation, do, with great spiritual benefits. Bodhicitta is the tip of the spear of mahayana buddhism, which reveals our innate buddhanature while uncovering our selfish confusion in all of its forms, including those that are not easy to detect.

There is also another perspective to bodhicitta, ultimate bodhicitta, where all beings are already free. This perspective exists simultaneously with the relative one. The ultimate perspective doesn't deny the relative one, this is essential to understand.

In my experience, ultimate bodhicitta can be glimpsed along the way, as we keep praying and acting for the liberation of others. Then at some point, the fact that all beings are free already, sneaks on us, and we experience both perspectives. This makes our practice mature, as well as realistic. It is realistic because sentient beins are both, free and imprisoned, buddhas and samsaric beings, until we cease to be samsaric beings.

In my article, Nuts and Bots of Bodhicitta (to be published at Levekunst.com), I gave a simple meditative exercise to boost one's experience and understanding of bodhicitta.

The gist of this exercise is this: Be or sit with all beings.

This is a highly useful meditation for those who work to understand one's true nature. When familiarity increases, this exercise ceases to be an articial practice, and becomes what we actually are, a mind of perfect clarity and stability, that is shared by all life, in a dynamic lively way.

This can also be used to check if one's atiyoga (t. dzogchen atiyoga), or nonmeditation is correct. If we generate bodhicitta during nonmeditation, and our energyfield disappears by blessings shooting outwards from our body, and by consequence we become connected with sentient beings outside our energy field, it is an indication that our atiyoga is still unripe. It is unripe because atiyoga is ”buddhanature sitting” and in buddhanature all beings are already connected. In this case, we need to keep generating bodhicitta and focus on tantric practice. However, if nothing happens by saying a prayer, our practice is sound and correct.

This is how I understand, ”just as it is”, a phrase often used in zen buddhism, and this is what I believe, correct just sitting (j. shikantaza/只管打坐) is.

Thank you for reading,

- Kim Katami, 8.12.2018.

Pointing the Staff at The Old Man's Heart by Padmasambhava

POINTING THE STAFF AT THE OLD MAN'S HEART

by PADMASAMBHAVA

While the great master Padmasambhava was staying at Great Rock Hermitage at Samye, Sherab Gyalpo of Ngog, an uneducated 61 year old man who had the highest faith and strong devotion to the master, served him for one year. All this while Ngog didn't ask for any teachings, nor did the master give him any. When after a year the master intended to leave, Ngog offered a mandala plate upon which he placed a flower of one ounce of gold.



Then he said, Great Master, think of me with kindness. First of all, I am uneducated. Second, my intelligence is small. Third, I am old, so my elements are worn down. I beg you to give a teaching to an old man on the verge of death that is simple to understand, can thoroughly cut through doubt, is easy to realize and apply, has an effective view, and will help me in future lives.
The Master pointed his walking staff at the old man's heart and gave this instruction:

Listen here old man! Look into the awakened mind of your own awareness! It has neither form nor color, neither center nor edge. At first, it has no origin but is empty. Next, it has no dwelling place but is empty. At the end, it has no destination but is empty. This emptiness is not made of anything and is clear and cognizant. When you see this and recognize it, you know your natural face. You understand the nature of things. You have then seen the nature of mind, resolved the basic state of reality and cut through doubts about topics of knowledge.
This awakened mind of awareness is not made out of any material substance; it is self-existing and inherent in yourself. This is the nature of things that is easy to realize because it is not to be sought for elsewhere. This is the nature of mind that does not consist of a concrete perceiver and something perceived to fixate on. It defies the limitations of permanence and annihilation. In it there is no thing to awaken; the awakened state of enlightenment is your own awareness that is naturally awake. In it there is no thing that goes to the hells; awareness is naturally pure. In it there is no practice to carry out; its nature is naturally cognizant. This great view of the natural state is present in yourself: resolve that it is not to be sought for elsewhere.
When you understand the view in this way and want to apply it in your experience, wherever you stay is the mountain retreat of your body. Whatever external appearance you perceive is a naturally occurring appearance and a naturally empty emptiness; let it be, free from mental constructs. Naturally freed appearances become your helpers, and you can practice while taking appearances as the path.

Within, whatever moves in your mind, whatever you think, has no essence but is empty. Thought occurrences are naturally freed. When remembering your mind essence you can take thoughts as the path and the practice is easy.
As for the innermost advice: no matter what kind of disturbing emotion you feel, look into the emotion and it tracelessly subsides. The disturbing emotion is thus naturally freed. This is simple to practice.

When you can practice in this way, your meditation training is not confined to sessions. Knowing that everything is a helper, your meditation experience is unchanging, the innate nature is unceasing, and your conduct is unshackled. Wherever you stay, you are never apart from the innate nature.



Once you realize this, your material body may be old, but awakened mind doesn't age. It knows no difference between young and old. The innate nature is beyond bias and partiality. When you recognize that awareness, innate wakefulness, is present in yourself, there is no difference between sharp and dull faculties. When you understand the innate nature, free from bias and partiality, is present within yourself, there is no difference between great and small learning. Even though your body, the support for the mind, falls apart, the dharmakaya of awareness wisdom is unceasing. When you gain stability in this unchanging state, there is no difference between a long and a short life-span.

Old man, practice the true meaning! Take the practice to heart! Don't mistake words and meaning! Don't depart from your friend, diligence! Embrace everything with mindfulness! Don't indulge in idle talk and pointless gossip! Don't become involved in common aims! Don't disturb yourself with worry of offspring! Don't excessively crave food and drink! Intend to die an ordinary man! Your life is running out, so be diligent! Practice this instruction for an old man on the verge of death!



Because of pointing the staff at Sherab Gyalpo's heart, this is called 'The Instruction of Pointing the Staff at the Old Man.' Sherab Gyalpo of Ngog was liberated and attained accomplishment.



This was written down by the Princess of Kharchen, Yeshe Tsogyal, for the sake of future generations. It is known under the name 'The Instruction of Pointing the Staff.'



*TRANSLATED BY ERIK PEMA KUNSANG, RANGJUNG YESHE PUBLICATIONS

Dudjom Lingpa & Heart of Great Perfection

Dudjom Lingpa &

Heart of Great Perfection

Although I practiced in that way, when I encountered even a minor issue, I would lose my own grounding in the nature of existence and revert to ordinary states. For example, when I was alone and naked in the wilderness, if I were to become frightened when various ferocious animals and savages let out terrifying roars, I would be no different than an ordinary person. In that case, there would be no way I could be liberated in the intermediate period by way of such meditation. But with heartfelt faith and reverence I prayed to my guru, the Lake-Born Vajra, “Please grant me right now practical instructions for handling such circumstances!” Falling asleep with immense devotion, in a dream I had a vision of Orgyen Dorjé Drolö* appearing from an expanse of blazing fire and light, and he chanted the lyrics of this Hūṃ song: [479]



*Orgyen Dorjé Drolö refers to Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava



Hūṃ Hūṃ! Supreme being, Vajra of Pristine Awareness,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! do you understand the common thread of the three realms of saṃsāra
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as dualistic grasping at the apprehender and the apprehended?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand both the object and the subject
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as two thoughts?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand the joys and sorrows of this life and future lives
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as delusive experiences?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand daytime appearances, nighttime appearances, the physical world, and its sentient inhabitants
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as experiences of light and dark?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand the joys, sorrows, environment, and friends of this life
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as dream experiences and delusive appearances,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! and know that they are equally unreal?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! As vast as the physical world and its sentient inhabitants are,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! they do not extend beyond the expanse of space.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Although space has no periphery or center,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! it does not extend beyond the expanse of pristine awareness.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Buddhafields and excellent buddhas
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are the face of your own ground, the nature of existence.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do not mistake the buddhas as being autonomous.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! I shall cut off the errors of the māras above.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Enemies, demons, bad companions, and your surroundings
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are delusive experiences of conceptual, dualistic grasping.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do not regard them as anything other than reification.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! I shall destroy the errors of the māras below.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Daytime and dream appearances
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are reified and clung to as names and things. [480]
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Even though you know emptiness for yourself,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! do you understand thoughts as aspects of your own nature?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! While you understand all of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as the primordial expanse of the absolute space of the ground,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! do you understand them as nondual displays [of pristine awareness]?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Appearances of these creative expressions slip into the essential nature of uniform pervasiveness,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! releasing themselves into that expanse.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand that there is no practice of meditation?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Inwardly there is the bondage of grasping at the “I.”
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Outwardly there is grasping and clinging to objects.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Meditation in between is immaterial.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand that the gateways of
Hūṃ Hūṃ! outer and inner conditions obscure the face
Hūṃ Hūṃ! of the Great Perfection of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! First, by investigating, understanding will come.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Next, by meditating, experiences will arise.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Finally, by resting, realization will come.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Once realization has occurred, it is nondual with simultaneous liberation.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Objects and subjects together
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are awakened in the mother’s space of the great expanse.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! My emanations and I
Hūṃ Hūṃ! have never been separated.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Their essential nature is the illusion of my own creative expressions.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Like the dissolution of the apparitions of an illusionist,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! they are nondual in absolute space. Phaṭ Phaṭ!

With those words he became nondual with me, and an experience arose of my great appearances pervading all of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. From that time onward, [481] due to this sign, I knew that these were pith instructions for collapsing the false cave of appearances.

To expand on this just a little, (1) seek out the source of names, (2) destroy grasping at the permanence of things, and (3) collapse the false cave, which is primordially liberated within your own mindstream, by knowing and realizing all of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

1. Seek Out the Source of Names

By investigating and analyzing the tenacious grasping of saying the name “I” and grasping at the thought “I am,” you find that the basis of designation of everything—including the flesh, blood, and bones, throughout the exterior and interior of the body, and from the crown of the head down to the soles of the feet—is nonobjective and empty. Then continue to expose the error by also seeking out each of the specific names of the head, feet, arms, joints, and so on. As for the way to investigate all manners of establishing names and conventions in the external environment, by seeking out the name house, for example, in terms of its exterior, interior, upper, and lower areas, and its clay, stones, and so on, it disappears by itself. Earth becomes pottery; and the names of the upper and lower sections of stones, the tops and bottoms of trees, and so forth naturally disappear from where they are, and through transformation and modification they become water mills, stoves, pillars, and beams. Water becomes tea, fire becomes the flame of a butter lamp, air becomes a gust in a bellows, and so on. Reveal the fallacy in each of these cases that the bases of designation of such transformations, cessations, and disappearances [482] cannot be ascertained.

Translation by Alan Wallace